MoS Home Reddy On Tabrez Ansari Case: 'Law Will Take Its Own Course'

Hack:

MoS Reddy on Thursday said that the "law will take its own course" in the Tabreez Ansari lynching case

He also called the Jharkhand Police dropping the murder charges against the accused 'unfortunate'

Reddy said that every state government should focus on putting an end to the lynching cases

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday said that the "law will take its own course" in the Tabrez Ansari lynching case. His comments came amid an uproar over Jharkhand Police dropping the charges against the accused. MoS Reddy called the dropping of the murder charges 'unfortunate'.

Speaking to the reporters, MoS Reddy said, "I don't know what had happened in the court. I want that whatever had happened, whatever criminal act had happened, guilty should be punished. We will speak to the State Government. All governments should stop the lynching. It is not that lynching is happening only in the BJP-ruled States, it happened in West Bengal too. The Prime Minister has also spoken against it."

When asked about the charges being scaled down against the accused, MoS Reddy said, "Law will take its own course".

Who was Tabrez Ansari?

On the night of June 17, Ansari and two others were accused of entering a house in a village for stealing. The occupants of the house woke up and raised an alarm, following which the villagers caught hold of Ansari and assaulted him. Ansari's alleged accomplices were said to have escaped. Tabrez was forced to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram and Jai Hanuman’. The police rescued him the next morning and he was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Ansari was later arrested after a case of theft was filed against him. While in jail, his condition deteriorated and he was again admitted in the hospital, where he died. Ansari is survived by his wife, who he married in April. At the time of the incident, Karthik S, Saraikela-Kharsawan Superintendent of Police said, "We have taken the issue very seriously. We are looking for each and every person who are directly or indirectly involved in the crime. I had discussed the whole issue with the family members of the victim. Nobody will be spared".

Six arrests were made immediately in the case in June, which then increased into 11 in the following weeks. Two more people were later held, who are still being investigated. Later, a Special Investigation Team was set up to probe the incident and two policemen were suspended for alleged negligence of duty.

Murder charges dropped

Recently, the Jharkhand Police dropped the murder charges against the accused and filed a case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC instead of 302 (murder). The SP said, "Since the medical report did not confirm the cause of death properly, the provision under Section 304 of IPC was applied. Tabrez didn’t die of injury. He died of cardiac arrest due to stress"